Interesting Show Alert
Between Sasquatch and Folklife, there's tons going on music-wise this weekend, but if you're not into road trips or hippies, a few other interesting options are available as well. Topping that list, particularly for the more metal-inclined (and even more particularly, for the avant-garde/artsy/experimental-metal-inclined), has to be bizarre Oakland, California quintet Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, which is headlining Neumo's on Saturday night. SGM is occasionally compared to Mr. Bungle and even System of a Down for its skilled musicianship and anything-goes metal deconstructionism; also, singer-guitarist Nils Frykdahl's voice sports a slight Mike Patton influence (though there's a bit of Hetfield in his growl, as well). But the band's incorporation of Eastern European textures (its oft-pulverizing guitar-drums-bass attack is frequently augmented by an old-timey, bazaar-like orchestra of violin, lute, glockenspiel, toy piano, etc.) and a bevy of homemade instruments -- the Slide-Piano Log, the Percussion Guitar, the Electric Pancreas, the Vatican, and the Pedal-Action Wiggler (I'm not entirely sure what any of these do) -- really sets them apart from their alt-metal peers.
SGM's live show is a self-described "costumed festival of hyperventilating self-derangement" (which sounds a little like Folklife, actually) that's peppered with "pseudo-scientific scholarly presentations" (which kinda makes me think of that Nine Inch Nails "Closer" video). Could be one of the more freaky, fascinating performances you catch all year.
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